Kollegenorientierung im Journalismus

Whether the personal views of journalists affect their publication decisions is a much debated question in communication science. In a comparative survey of German and Italian journalists using the example of the euro crisis, Andrea Weitzel shows not only that colleagues, superiors and the editorial line are more important than one's own views. She goes one step further and uses a series of path analyses to determine which conditions will increase the influence of personal views: The content-related proximity to colleagues and the climate of opinion in the newsroom are important. Besides many similarities between the journalists from both countries, some remarkable differences appear.